Like a thoroughbred charging out of the gate
war hero, straight talk patriot and former Navy
Secretary Jim Webb is within striking range of
the Macaca Man to become the Terminator for
Democrats, making the United States Senate
Democratic along with the House, while saving
George W. Bush from himself, and saving our
country from the disaster that awaits if we
have two more years of one party power in
Washington.
Let me be fair and precise about this. George
Allen is not the worst of Republicans and this
latest episode, while humiliating to him, was
surprising to me. The problem is, he has been
positioning himself as the Great White Hope of
the Right for 2008 and has surrounded himself
with the partisan mindset and tactics of the
pinstriped bigots who play the wedge politics
of Karl Rove.
When the President attacks Hispanics who
sing our Anthem in Spanish, what he is really
doing is appealing to the worst elements with
the notion that they are not really Americans.
When the idiot savants of the radical right use
words such as treason, strange for people who
never served in the military making such
charges to support others who never served
in the military, what they are really saying is:
even former war heroes of the other party
are not really Americans.
Now that George Allen has remembered that
he didn't mean Mohawk, he meant Macaca, he
should be asked directly what he meant when
he said, with a smile and a smirk: welcome to
the real America and the real Virginia. Well,
we all know what he meant, and its not a pretty
sight on tape, is it?
When Jim Webb charges to the finish line in
November, barnstorming Virginia with Mark
Warner by his side, he will make it clear that
when he was charging with his brothers and
sisters in Vietnam into bullets fired by the communists they did not
play race-baiting
wedge politics, they stood for Semper Fi.
Ever Faithful: ever faithful to our country,
ever faithful to each other regardless of the
origin of our Moms and Dads.
One thing for sure: the great right hope for
2008 will not be sitting in the Oval Office in
2009. Remember the Republican National
Convention of 2004? Every host on every
cable television show, and every Democratic
guest, should bring out those pictures of the
Republicans at that Convention making fun
of and demeaning the Purple Heart. If the
same Republicans want to make 2008 the
Macaca Convention: make my day!
The sheriff is back in town. The American people are fed up with the
idiot savant attacks
of the right wing partisans and a President who
makes those attacks his way of life. That is
why the Macaca fiasco resonates throughout
the Nation. If George Allen wants to campaign
in his real Virginia of Jefferson Davis, Jim Webb
will campaign for his real Virginia of Thomas Jefferson and George
Washington by tradition,
Mark Warner and Tim Kaine today.
If the pinstriped bigots of wedge politics have
outworn their welcome from the American
people, the war drunk partisans are an even
greater danger to our troops and our security.
Their blunders, obsessions and war partisan
extremism kills real people, and too many of
our sons and daughters have paid the price.
Listening to Republicans today, they seem
punch drunk for war, world war, 24/7 war,
war in Iraq is not enough, they want war with
Iran, war with Syria, war with Korea. They
have already disrupted our military force
structures around the world, so grossly
under-supplied our troops that the Marine
Corps pathologist says up to 70% of our
casualties were preventable, and have begun
a de facto draft with involuntary recalls of
Marines and stop loss abuses for the Army.
Every time we hear these war drunk partisans
in Washington pleading to send other people's
sons and daughters to new wars, we should
ask: Where will you get the troops, and do
you want to bring back the draft?
Now here comes the Intelligence Committee of
the House of Representatives attacking the
intelligence from Iran. Certainly intelligence
about Iran leaves much to be desired, in large
measure because of their own failures. But
understand exactly what they are doing: they
want another war, with Iran; they want more
fear, to promote their partisanship and their
wars. Wont be long before Dick Cheney starts
talking about mushroom clouds and WMD.
Sound familiar?
When I worked for Lloyd Bentsen handling
intelligence issues, the Intelligence Committees
were truly nonpartisan, professional and
objective. The Republican Congress has
turned them into another partisan forum; and
another spin machine to propagandize for more
wars. Every Republican member of the House and Senate Intelligence
Committees should be
held accountable for their partisanship and their
failures and contribution to our problems in Iraq.
Remember about a year ago, when Harry Reid
forced the Senate Intelligence Committee to
promise release of their full investigation of
what went wrong with Iraq WMD Intelligence?
The Chairman, Senator Pat Roberts, publicly
promised then that the work would be done
and announced within weeks. This is now
close to a year later. Why the cover-up?
Democrats should be calling for release
of that report NOW! And holding accountable
every Republican on the Committee who wants
to break their word to the voters and break their
trust with the American people and keep it
secret until after the election.
Regarding the House Intelligence Committee,
if they want to put out partisan reports designed
to promote more wars, they should be asked:
If you want war with Iran, where will you find
the troops, and do you want to bring back the
draft? If you want war with Syria, where will
find the troops, and do you want to bring back
the draft? If you want war in Korea, where will
you find the troops, and do you want to bring
back the draft? If you want 24/7 war, world war, war everywhere, why
don't you take back
your enormous tax cuts for the upper income
and get our troops the armor, helmets and
bandages they don't even have for Iraq, let
alone these new wars you want to fight?
And now, having created true catastrophe on
so many national security levels, Republicans
are starting the Blame Americans For Iraq
campaign. It is astounding that the President
would talk down to the American people and
suggest we have some kind of psychological
trauma. I don't know what is worse, that he
is so far out of touch with reality to say that,
or so willing to blame the American people for
his mistakes.
The truth is, it is this war drunk partisanship
that represents the psychological trauma.
It is the war fever politics that is light years
out of touch with the American mainstream
and American tradition. It is the fearmongering
and the twisting of intelligence and this almost
addictive urge for new wars to fight that comes
from the psychological trauma of ideologues
and partisans. They have done enough damage for a generation.
The American people are quite smart, and
quite right, to reject these attitudes and these policies and desire a
return to the good old
USA: Where we are in this together, where
American political and diplomatic leadership
of the free world is one of our great strengths
and not something to be spoken of with ridicule
and contempt.
Our Republican friends want to blame the American people and say that
something is wrong with them for demanding change. We
stand with the people. We are the change.
The last issue in our landslide litany for today
is the epidemic of war profiteering that is one
of the darkest and most damaging legacies
one party Republicanism in Washington.
Is it right for major oil companies to reap record
profits when the Republican Congress passes
bankruptcy laws that screw average Americans,
including military families, and close military hospitals that our vets
need so much?
Is it right that corruption and abuse have been rampant in the Iraq
Reconstruction, while the
Republicans cant find enough armor, helmets
and bandages for the troops?
Is it right oil company executives can make
hundreds of millions of dollars in personal
profit, while Middle Americans are forced to
cut spending for their kids and poor Americans
freeze because they cannot afford the price of
heat in the cold of winter?
Is it right to have a Republican Congress that
acts like a wholly owned subsidiary, where
dozens of Members now worry about whether
they will be indicted and the Jack Abramoffs
are treated like Kings. While working people get form letters from
Republican Congressmen
who take lobbyist financed junkets to exotic
places?
On all of these issues we are the heart and
soul of the good old USA. This is the stuff
that dreams are made of. This is the stuff
upon which great victories are built. Soon:
mobilizing the vote, counting them honestly,
and morning in America when this election
is won.